


Phoenix Flame

by KittenVirus



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Comfort, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 22:48:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16921893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittenVirus/pseuds/KittenVirus
Summary: Spoiler Warning for the latest KR story update (Dec 2018)!Back at the El Tower, Rosso is plagued by nightmares from his time in the demon realm. When he heads out to clear his mind, he stumbles upon some of the El Priestesses.Somewhat of a silly short story I've had in mind for a while now. Implied Solace x Rosso, do not like, do not read. You're been warned o3o





	Phoenix Flame

Pain, burning pain in my chest, flickering over my whole body in a rhythmic pulse.

No way to tell whether it was hot or cold. It just burned. And burned. Every moment, again, and again, driving me insane, second after second.

And my head.... it hurt. So much. I was alone. Everything around me was dead. Nobody was allowed closer. I wouldn't give them a chance to hurt me again.

Plusing. Pain. It burns... as if the fire had turned against me.

...I hate myself.

I opened my eyes. Darkness. The burning was still there, pulsing in synch with my heartbeat. Dark. Why was it dark? I realized that I could move, and immediately shot up. My body was cold. The pain was... weak? More like... a memory...

Faint, gentle light came from my right. I squinted, making out curtains that probably covered a window, billowing softly in a breeze. Then I realized that it was raining outside, I could hear the water splashing against the outer walls. My hands moved over the ground around me, finding it soft. There was a blanket next to me, which I had probably thrown away in my sleep. I was at the El Tower.

With the realization sinking in, the pain started to subdue even more. It wasn't real, anyways. It had been a nightmare. A gust of wind from the windows made me shudder. My body was drenched in sweat. Shivering, I tried to reach for the blanket, but my hand bumped into something hard instead. Breathing.

Oh right.

My eyes were finally starting to adjust to the darkness, and I could make out Solace's sleeping figure. His breathing was so gentle I almost didn't hear it. I pulled back my hand and got off the bed, carefully, trying not to wake him up. My shirst was wet, so I pulled it over my head and stumbled through the room until I found the closet. Well, my forehead did. Cursing under my breath, I rummaged around until I found another shirt to wear. Then i carefully edged along the wall until I reached the windows. The floor was wet. I usually left the window open during the night, because in all honesty, I usually ended up accidentally heating the room more often than I was cold. I slipped behing the curtains, only to be greeted by another gust of wind, blowing raindrops directly into my face. I quickly closed the window.

Now the room was silent, apart from Solace's breathing and the splattering of the water against the now closed windows.  
I pressed my back against the cold glass. The burning in my chest was still there, even if it was faint. The curtains brushed over my face. A shudder ran down my spine, and all of a sudden I felt way too claustrophobic between the window and the curtains. Hastily I fought my way past the heavy textiles, almost slipping on the still wet carpet when I staggered back into the room. Quiet. Way too quiet. Instead of going back to the bed, I decided to head for the door. I didn't want to wake up Solace. He always felt bad for me when this happened, and I didn't feel like troubling him yet again.

The hallway was lit, but the glowing El Shards that were used as a light source around here were dimmed. Well, that meant it was past midnight. The floor was ice cold on my bare feet. I hopped onto the carpet that went down the middle of the hallway and then turned to the left. When i reached the staircase, I grimaced. No carpet here, only freakishly cold stone slabs. I decided to go downstairs - fresh air would maybe help against the claustrophobic feeling. The first floor was just as quiet as the second floor. The dimmed light made the abandoned hallways seem almost otherworldly. Another gust of wind brushed past me, and it made an eerie howling noise as it did so. I got goosebumps and decided to hurry downstairs. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I stopped. Did I just hear a voice? That was... no there it was again. I looked around, and sure enough, I could see faint light coming from the end of the hallway that led to the back (and thus, the gardens). There was no carpet on this floor, and also no actual doors, so the wind was pretty much just rushing in and out of the building, creating that howling I had heard before. A strand of my hair slapped my in the face while I tried to sneak down the hallway. I spat it out and tried to put my hair back, even though the wind just kept pushing it around anyways.

The closer I got to the back, the clearer I could make out the voices. They were all female. I only recognized one as the voice of the... ugh. The Fire Priestess. I had already forgotten her name to be honest... the women were talking and giggling. I couldn't help but wonder just what the hell they were doing outside at this hour, in the rain. The hallways abruptly ended as the wall to the right was replaced by nothing but a few pillars and 3 wide stone slabs that lead down to the gardens. These stairs went along pretty much all of the back of the tower, about 50 meters of open wall. The stairs were still below the first floor though, so unless the wind blew your direction, rain wouldn't reach you. Unfortunately, tonight was quite stormy. The wind was even worse here, because it blew around the pillars and didn't exactly come from one direction. It took about 5 seconds for my hair to turn into an absolute mess. Cursing under my breath, I hid behind a pillar and tried to get the red mass under control again.

The sound of a guitar drowned out the howling of the wind.

I froze, then peeked around the pillar I was standing behind. Just a few meters in front of me, I spotted some of the priestesses - all in their nightgowns with coats - sitting on the stairs. The blue haired priestess was probably the water priestess, at least that would explain why the rain was not hitting them. They were sitting huddled against each other. Next to the water priestess I spotted the moon priestess. She and the sun priestess were flanking the fire priestess. The earth priestess was sitting opposite to them, one slab further down, with a guitar on her lap. The melody she played seemed oddly familiar. The fire priestess laughed and waved her hands through the air, creating tiny sparks that lit up the air around them like fireflies. Ugh. Pathetic. I positioned myself so the pillar was between me and them and sat down on the cold floor. I listened to Artea's music for a while. When she finished, the other priestesses giggled agains and clapped quietly. ...women.

Just when I wanted to get up again, Artea started to play another song. That was... that was a folksong. From Lanox. I relaxed against the pillar again. It was a really old song, one I had grown up with. I didn't even know it had survived over the centuries... then again, now that I thought about it, the melody she had been playing before had sounded oddly familiar aswell. Maybe there were newer versions of the songs. Or maybe the priestesses still learned about these songs, since they were mainly directed at the Elemntal energies in the land. My mind almost immediately recalled the lyrics to the song. Then suddenly... the fire priestess started to sing. Not in ancient elrian of course, that language had died out during the last century. But a translation of the original. I blinked. It was surprisingly soothing to listen to her, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night, it was cold AND wet. I pulled my knees to my chest to rest my head on them. The priestess finished the first verse and skipped to the second one. I closed my eyes. The wind brought a new wave of water and pulled on my hair again, but there was a warmth in my chest again, where the pain had been before. The second verse was followed by the third, then the fourth. I leaned over and peeked around the pillar again. The sun priestess had her head in the fire priestess' lap, eyes closed. Artea was focused on her music, while Darkmoon and the water priestess watched the firefly-like sparks float around them, smiling. The sparks were now changing colors, illuminating their faces in all colors of the rainbow, and a few more.

...

As the fire priestess skipped over to the fifth verse, I called for the fire in my chest. It reacted immediately, it was a part of me after all. With a quick thought I summoned a small flame in my hand, it glowed in wonderful shades of orange and pink. The crackling of the fire was just as soothing as the song was. I shaped the fire with my mind - a by now simple practice for me, even though it took months to originally learn it. Making fire obey your will to an extent where you could change it's shape was not easy. When I was satisfied - the sixth verse of the song was almost finished, and with it would be the song - I ordered the small Phoenix shaped flame off my hand. The Phoenix shook it's feathers and spread its wings, then it took off my hand and floated over to the priestesses, dancing around the colorful sparks that the fire priestess had created. The sun and moon priestesses laughed in excitement, while the older priestesses just watched almost awefully. "That's so pretty!" the sun priestess exclaimed, reaching towards the bird. It flew close by her outstreched had and made her laugh again. As Artea stopped playing her guitar, I let the bird circle them once more before quiching the flames. It earned me a few disappointed "ahhw"s. "That was amazing! How did you do that?" the sun priestess addressed the fire priestess. But she just blinked in confusion. "I- wait i didn't do that. I thought you did." "That was fire, not light! How could I do that?" the smaller girl asked, now likewise confused. The women looked around, and I slipped a bit further behind the pillar again to avoid their gazes. A moment later the fire priestess sighed. "Well I think we should go back to our rooms. It's way too late anyways." She gave the two youngest priestesses a look. "You think you can sleep now? No more nightmares?" I had to suppress a snort. How ironic. The girls shook their heads and the priestesses started to get up. Artea put her guitar back into its case and they made their way... fuck. Over my direction.

Somehow, I managed to walk around the pillar in a way that prevented them from seeing me as they passed. Even though it meant that I had to stand directly in the rain. Damn. I shouldn't have switched my shirt in the first place... now I had ruined two. I waited for a moment until they had almost reached the stairs before I relaxed against the pillar again. The warmth was now almost completely gone, I was soaked again and I honestly just wanted back to my bed. But I'd have to wait a few minutes to avoid bumping into anyone.

I sat down on the stone slabs again, staring out into the dark gardens. The wind was rustling through the trees and bushes.

"Hey." I jumped, my heart skipping a few beats, and darted around, just to find the fire priestess standing right behind me. "I uh. Turned around and I thought I saw you." I just stared at her, my pulse stuck somehwere in my throat. I hadn't even heard her coming. You'd think after years of living with Ventus I'd grown used to people sneaking up on me, but apparently that was not the case. An awkward pause later, the fire priestess cleared her throat. "What are you doing up this late?" she asked, avoiding eye contact. "None of your business" I grumbled and turned my back to her again. She sighed. "Why do you always have to be such an asshole? I'm TRYING to be nice!" she huffed in annoyance. "And don't tell me that's "none of my business" either, because clearly you snapping at ME in fact IS my business." I rolled my eyes. "Go to bed, girl" I grumbled, hugging my knees again. I didn't go out here to have a conversation, and ESPECIALLY not with HER. But instead of leaving, she suddenly dropped down onto the stairs next to me. I scooted a few feet away from her. There was another awkward silence. After a few minutes, I've had enough. "Can't you just leave me ALONE for Elria's sake?" I snapped, narrowing my eyes as I shot her a glare. She scoffed. "Yeah fine. Go catch a cold. See if I care" she grumbled and fucking finally got up again. I could hear her steps going down the hallway, but I didn't turn around to look after her. I just stared blankly into the darkness outside of the tower.

Lost in my thoughts, I leaned against the pillar behind me and turned to look up at the clouded sky. Rain splattered on my face.

Something touched my shoulder and I jerked upwards. Confused, I tried to understand where I was. Outside. Rain. Uhm. Oh fuck, I had fallen asleep. Solace was sneeling next to me, looking quite worried. "What in the world are you doing, sleeping outside?" he asked, frowning. One of his hands was still on my shoulder. I blinked. Something was tickling my nose. Instead of answering, I ended up sneezing. Soalce sighed. "Yeah, answer enough. Bed. Now." His other arm suddenly slipped under my knees and he scooped me up on his arms. Startled, I grabbed his shirt to steady myself, while he started to walk down the hallway I had come from earlier this night. "How did you know I was...?" I asked, confused. He was warm. And I was freezing. Almost automatically, my arms wrapped around his neck. I didn't even care that I soaked him like this. "Ignia woke me up earlier. Said you were down there all by yourself. By the time I got here you were conked out against a damn pillar..." "Hm" was all I answered. I nestled my face into the side of his neck. The movement of his body when he climed the steps was enough to lull me back to sleep. The last thing I heard was "Next time you can't sleep, please wake me up..."


End file.
